According to a spokeswoman for the federal agency, conditions at the jail are unacceptable, and the Marshals Service won't house prisoners there again until officials are "satisfied that the facility meets the standards in our contractual agreement."

This isn't the first time the federal government has sounded an alarm about Orleans Parish Prison. In September 2009 the Department of Justice released a report that said conditions there "violate the constitutional rights of inmates." The sheriff took "great offense" at what he called that "terribly dated" report's "erroneous claims and conclusions." But here we are almost three years later, and the federal government is once again declaring that the conditions at Sheriff Gusman's jail are intolerable.

Separately, on Monday 10 plaintiffs filed a federal lawsuit against Sheriff Gusman accusing the sheriff of "deliberate indifference to the basic rights of the people housed at OPP by implementing constitutionally deficient security, staffing, classification and mental health policies and practices."

The civil action was filed by an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center a week after the civil rights group said a transsexual inmate was gang raped and infected with HIV while in custody.

In response to the rape allegation, Sheriff Gusman cited an exam conducted at the Interim LSU Public Hospital and reports from other inmates that he said made him skeptical there had been any forced sex. However, his office also released a statement saying an investigation into the allegations were ongoing.

Katie Schwartzmann, the SCLC attorney who represents the alleged victim, said her group has spoken to inmates who corroborate her client's story. She also said that not all of the forensic samples taken during the hospital rape exam have been tested.

Sheriff Gusman says his department has no tolerance for rape. Yet, there have been disturbing reports of sexual predators at the jail. The Sheriff's Office was asked to testify before a Justice Department Review Panel on Prison Rape last year because a survey indicated there was an exceptionally high rate of inmate-on-inmate violence at a now-closed female lock-up. But the lurid testimony during that Washington hearing came from gay men who said their sexual assaults had been ignored by jail officials.

The sheriff said in a September interview that because inmates who say they have been sexually assaulted are temporarily assigned to the 10th floor, the only one in the House of Detention with air conditioning, some inmates fictionalize assaults to get a break from the heat.

The sheriff has previously acknowledged that a consent decree with the federal government may be in the works but has said nothing publicly about the Marshals recent decision to remove all its inmates.

Last summer a federal inmate who indicated he was suicidal before being brought to the prison killed himself while there. Sheriff Gusman fired the guard he said abandoned his post. That person also was booked with malfeasance in office.

That seemingly preventable suicide must have contributed to the Marshals Service's decision, and it ought to concern the public. It's proof that the difference between a well-run jail and a troubled operation can be the difference between an inmate walking out alive and being carted out dead.